The Downfall of the American Order? - by Peter J Katzenstein & Jonathan Kirshner (Paperback)

About the Book

"The American-led international order, forged after the end of the Second World War, appears to have come to an end. This book of essays examines the character of the American order and considers the implications of what might come next, with an emphasis on the prospects for liberalism, broadly defined" --

Book Synopsis

The Downfall of the American Order? offers penetrating insight into the emerging global political economy at this moment of an increasingly chaotic world.

For seventy-five years, the basic patterns of world politics and the contours of international economic activity took place in the shadow of American leadership and the institutions it designed--an order designed to avoid the horrors of previous eras, including, most poignantly, two world wars and the Great Depression.

But all things must pass. The global financial crisis of 2008, the legacy of two long, losing wars, and the polarizing and tumultuous presidency of Donald Trump all suggest that global affairs have reached a turning point. The implications of this are profound.

The contributors to this book cast their eyes back on the order that once was, and look ahead to what might follow. In dialogue with each other's appraisals and expectations, they differ in their assessments of the probable, ranging from a hollowed-out American primacy muddling through by default, to partial modifications of old institutions and practices at home and abroad, and to wholesale contestations and the search for new orders.

Contributors: Rawi Abdelal, Sheri Berman, Mark Blyth, Francis J. Gavin, Peter A. Gourevitch, Ilene Grabel, Peter J. Katzenstein, Jonathan Kirshner, and John Gerard Ruggie

Review Quotes

Collectively, the contributions amount to a sophisticated and accessible analysis of the international political economy issues of our time. The contributors seem to share sympathies for embedded liberalism, so those searching for more radical perspectives should look elsewhere. Readers are left with a profound understanding of the liberal order's genesis, design, pitfalls, alterations and current challenges, and its possible futures.

-- "International Affairs"

[T]he book is a welcome addition to the scholarship grappling with the fate of the (eroding?) liberal international order today.

-- "Choice"

This engaging collection of essays brings distinguished scholars of political economy together to explore the changing faces of economic liberalism within the U.S.-led postwar international order.The value of this volume is[...] in the richness of the debate about how orders, liberal and otherwise, are shaped and reshaped.

-- "Foreign Affairs"

About the Author

Peter J. Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He is the author, coauthor, editor and coeditor of more than forty books, edited volumes, or monographs.

Jonathan Kirshner is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Boston College. His recent books include American Power after the Financial Crisis, and An Unwritten Future.